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Gardeners' Notes:

This is one of my favorite border plants and always gets attention by visitors. It starts blooming early in the summer and keeps increasing until frost. In NW Washington our weather gets a 2 to 4 week spell of 90's to 104 degrees and our winters usually are around the teens at times. The verbena returns with gusto. This year we hit between 5 and 10 degrees and it looks like I lost all of them (about 12 in my large and substantial gardens). They're supposed to handle to 5*. What a bummer. I'll be replacing all of them. Can't beat the constant color that glows from 200 feet away!

Zone 5b here and I planted this last year thinking it would be an annual for me. Hah! After uncovering my bed this Spring in late March there was the 'Blue Princess' runners spread like wildfire across the bed it's in and green spots up and down the surface runners. Today on Easter (April 11th) I have blooms although only a couple!! It is protected on a southern exposure against the foundation of my home.

This is my favorite Verbena that I have tried because of the almost-blue color of the flowers and the fragrance! In fact, I made a mistake last year in planting this as a groundcover. I should have planted it where it would spill over our brick retaining wall so we can more easily catch a whiff of the scent.

This plant overwintered for me this year (Spring 2004) in zone 7/8 North Central Alabama without ever dying completely back to the ground -- it remained at least partially green.

Rockwall, Texas...just east of Dallas. We have had this plant for 2 seasons and the hotter it gets, it goes nuts! This is the most drought tolerant plant we have in our yard, the less it is watered the better it seems to do. Once in a while we trim it back about 25% with the weedwacker and it comes back in full force with even more blooms than before! Next year we are getting more of it to plant in other parts of the yard, it is a true beauty, not only are the flowers gorgeous in the spring through fall, but the foilage the rest of the year is also very attractive. If you live in Texas, need something in yard maintenance free, and forget to water like we do, this is the plant to have! No complaints here, and comes back every year.

San Antonio, TX
This verbena hybrid was found in 1995 by Greg Grant of Texas in England at Wisley, the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society. He tested it out in Texas and it was named a Texas SuperStar plant in 1998 by the Texas A&M CEMAP program. It has improved heat tolerance and cold tolerance over the other cultivars being hardy to zone 7b.

The bountiful flowers are not true blue, but are a lavender-blue. I have found that I do not have to shear these like I have to do the other varieties to encourage more flowers. They are very low growing. Most verbenas grow and bloom best in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall with a tendency to "bloom themselves out" during the summer. The Blue Princess have been blooming planted in the hottest, driest part of my yard (some are now spilling right over the street curb towards the hot asphalt in 108 degree weather) without a skip in flower production. I propagated some in the middle of July by cuttings and division, but they are taking a while to get started due to the heat.

Provide a light fertilization in both spring and fall. When dried, the flowers are an electric blue. Possessing a trailing habit, Blue Princess makes a superb potted plant, hanging basket, perennial border and groundcover. Butterflies and bees are heavily attracted to its fragrance and bright color. I know why this plant has been chosen as a Texas Superstar.